[tlbuild] OpenBSD

[Mojca Miklavec]

On 5 May 2016 at 02:40, Nelson H. F. Beebe wrote:
> From the Web site
>
>         http://www.math.utah.edu/pub/texlive/
>
> here is the current status of TeX Live 2016 builds on OpenBSD at Utah:
>
>         binary-distribution-name        : Missing binaries [compared to x86_64-linux-pclinuxos-2016]
>
>         x86_64-openbsd-54               : inimflua inimfluajit m-tx pmx2pdf tex2xindy texindy xindy xindy.mem xindy.run
>         x86_64-openbsd-55               : inimflua inimfluajit m-tx pmx2pdf tex2xindy texindy xindy xindy.mem xindy.run
>         x86_64-openbsd-56               : inimflua inimfluajit m-tx pmx2pdf tex2xindy texindy xindy xindy.mem xindy.run
>         x86_64-openbsd-57               : inimflua inimfluajit m-tx pmx2pdf tex2xindy texindy xindy xindy.mem xindy.run
>         x86_64-openbsd-58               : asy inimflua inimfluajit m-tx pdfxup pmx2pdf tex2xindy texindy xasy xindy xindy.mem xindy.run
>         x86_64-openbsd-59               : inimflua inimfluajit m-tx pmx2pdf tex2xindy texindy xindy xindy.mem xindy.run
>
> The problem report at
>
>         http://www.tug.org/pipermail/tex-live/2007-January/011870.html
>
> refers to build failures on OpenBSD due to missing symbols from the
> -lpthread library.  That library IS available on OpenBSD, but it make
> take a package installation to put it onto your system.  The problem
> is that the contents of -lpthread are in -lc on many flavors of Unix,
> so there are at least three erroneous configure.in scripts in the TeX
> Live tree that fail to test for the need for a separate -lpthread
> option.
>
> From my posting to the tlbuild list on Sat, 23 Apr 2016 18:48:32
> -0600:
>
>>> ...
>>> I've now done a fresh build of the texlive-20160423 snapshot on
>>> OpenBSD 5.9, without adding -lpthreads to all of the Makefiles.  Each
>>> time the build failed with missing pthread symbols, I stepped to that
>>> directory and added that library in front of -lm in the Makefile, then
>>> restarted the build.
>>>
>>> On completion, only these executables now refer to the pthread libraries:
>>>
>>>      libpthread              bibtexu upmendex
>>>
>>>      libpthread-stubs        inimf mf mflua mflua-nowin mfluajit \
>>>                              mfluajit-nowin pdfclose pdfopen \
>>>                              xdvi-xaw xelatex xelollipop xetex
>>> ...

It would be awesome to fix the remaining problems in configure.in.
That would at least make it possible for users who want to compile
their own binaries to do it without extra hassle.

I would assume that there must be a way to compile pthread statically,
but if libc is incompatible by design, there's not much one can do to
distribute compatible binaries without providing one set of binaries
per each OS version.

It makes no sense to put the OpenBSD binaries on DVD given that we
lack the space already. (They could be useful online though, depending
on what could be reasonably supported.) Given that Nelson builds the
binaries already and puts them online, it might also be possible to
point to his server when installing TL on OpenBSD.

I'm happy to hear that OpenBSD is catching up with official releases.

I still need to figure out what can be reasonably done to better serve
ConTeXt users who want to stay on the bleeding edge.

Mojca